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Pretoria, South Africa – A horrific mass shooting at an unlicensed bar near South Africa’s capital has left at least 12 people dead, including three children aged 3, 12, and 16. The attack, carried out by multiple suspects, also wounded 13 others who are currently receiving hospital treatment.
Police confirmed the adjusted death toll after a 12th victim succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. The tragic event unfolded in the early hours of Saturday at a bar located within a hostel in the Saulsville township, west of Pretoria. Ten individuals died at the scene, with two others passing away at the hospital.
The children killed were identified as a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old girl. Authorities are actively searching for three male suspects.
“We are told that at least three unknown gunmen entered this hostel where a group of people were drinking and they started randomly shooting,” police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe informed national broadcaster SABC.
She added that the motive for the killings remains unclear. The shootings occurred around 4:15 a.m., but police were not alerted until 6 a.m.
South Africa grapples with one of the highest homicide rates globally, recording over 26,000 homicides in 2024, averaging more than 70 deaths per day. Firearms are a predominant cause of these homicides. Despite relatively strict gun ownership laws in the country of 62 million people, many killings are attributed to illegal firearms, authorities state.
Mass shootings at bars, often referred to as shebeens or taverns in South Africa, have been a recurring issue in recent years. This includes an incident in 2022 that claimed 16 lives in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, and another on the same day where four people were killed at a bar in a different province.
Mathe highlighted the escalating problem of mass shootings at unlicensed bars, noting that police have shut down over 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year, leading to the arrest of more than 18,000 individuals involved in illicit liquor sales.
However, recent mass killings in South Africa are not confined to bars. Last September, 18 people, 15 of whom were women, were killed in mass shootings just minutes apart at two houses on the same road in a rural part of Eastern Cape province.
Seven men were subsequently arrested for those shootings and face multiple murder charges. Police recovered three AK-style assault rifles believed to have been used in those attacks.